


The Juniper Tree

by izacelty



Category: Durarara!!
Genre: AU, Creepy, F/M, Non-Linear Narrative, cant really go into detail but its meant to be creepy and their all elementary students, its more focused on izaya/celty but shinra is here lol, its not really izaya celty its a bit different lol, the death and violence isnt explicit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 10:20:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15434904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izacelty/pseuds/izacelty
Summary: Shinra and Izaya have a crush on the same girl. They decide to share.





	The Juniper Tree

**Author's Note:**

> based off a lot of things, mainly the legend of the red ribbon,this story actually has very little to do with the story of the juniper tree lol  
> this is an au...kinda

Her name was Celty Sturluson.

She was mute.

 

Perhaps the first thing Izaya had noticed about her when she presented herself in front of his 5th grade homeroom was the bright red ribbon she wore around her neck. The ribbon stood out against her pale skin but matched the shine of her short auburn hair. The second thing was the notepad she used to communicate with the class, her messy handwriting revealed she was still learning the language. Her writing consisted of either one word statements or short sentences but she managed to present herself properly all on her own. Her name was Celty, she was Irish, she and her parents had just moved here.She had taken the seat directly in front of him and Izaya would often find himself staring at the back of her neck and the red ribbon that adorned it.

 

She sat right in front of Izaya but directly beside Shinra Kishitani. He was the son of a doctor, he was an only child as far as he knew, and his father was barely home. He was the only person Izaya considered a friend.

 

He immediately fell for her.

 

* * *

 

“Do you have a crush on anyone?”

The question rang in Izaya head as the group of girls that sat next to him giggled with excitement. The age of ten could be a confusing time especially when it came to affairs of the heart and it was during this age where most girl would begin to form small attachments to other students, attachments known as “crushes”.

 

The question wasn't directed at him, in fact he shouldn't have been listening to their conversation to begin with, and yet Izaya would feel a small blush from across his cheeks. He just wanted to eat his lunch in peace. Peace however seemed to be taking a holiday.

 

Shinra leaned in, putting his lips close to Izaya’s ear, and whispered “Do you have a crush on anyone?”Izaya hesitated.

 

“Do you?” Izaya whispered back at him avoiding the question and making sure to keep his voice down as to not arouse suspicion from the loud group of girls sitting next them.

 

“Yes” Shinra’s excitement shone despite the quiet of his voice.

 

“Who?”

 

“I won’t tell if you don’t”

 

That day Izaya learned two things about Shinra: 1. he was very good at keeping secrets and 2. he had a crush on Celty Sturluson, the mute girl who sat in front of him.

 

“I don’t have crush on anyone”

 

Shinra also learned something about Izaya that day, he couldn’t lie through his teeth while the blush on his face revealed the truth.

 

* * *

 

From an outsider's perspective both boys were equally guilty in their actions but to this day Izaya firmly holds Shinra solely responsible for what was about to happen next. Sure Izaya was the one who brought up the topic of crushes again after the fact but it was Shinra who had insinuated the plan. How dare Shinra take advantage of Izaya’s confession like that and twist it into such a gruesome compromise?

 

Izaya wholeheartedly believes that if Shinra hadn’t presented the idea the two of them would have gone on to have a normal summer.

 

Even now Izaya only blames Shinra.

 

Shinra considered them partners after that point and he’d argue that Izaya was hoping Shinra would be smart enough to connect the dots. In his heart Shinra felt that this is what both of them wanted.

 

Why bring up what was under the ribbon?

 

* * *

 

Izaya’s father owned a saw. It was hidden away in the back of his shed, it was small and red. Whatever purpose Izaya’s father had bought it for was obviously completed as it had been covered in dust when Izaya found it. Izaya’s father rarely used tools, he wouldn’t notice it was gone. Ironically enough, it was also mute.

 

Shinra’s father was a doctor, what type of doctor Shinra could not say but he often left Shinra alone while he did work overseas. His study was large and filled with odd objects and Shinra liked to explore when his father way away. That's how he found the incubator, sitting in the corner of his dad closet. A reminder of a business proposition that had gone nowhere and was now abandoned to be forgotten along with a set of rusty scalpels and a withered lab coat. His father would not miss it Shinra told himself, in fact he wouldn't even notice it was gone.

 

* * *

 

Around September of that year there had been several news reports regarding a series of murders that had been occurring all across Ikebukuro believed to be the work of a serial killer. So far there were five victims in total, all of whom had disappeared in the afternoon and had missing persons reports filed for them. The victims were all young adults and their bodies were all found in the same state, covered in slashes. The news would go on to call this notorious serial killer as “The Slasher”. Paranoia soon spread across the city and the police urged everyone to follow a curfew system and to avoid being out alone.

 

Celty walked home by herself and rarely watched the news. She passed through a park everyday on her way home.

 

* * *

 

 

The two had followed her but made sure they were at least ten feet behind her, the last thing they wanted was to scare her off after all. The small saw and the incubator were already hidden at the location, they had placed them there that morning along with some garbage bags, a change of clothes, and some matches and lighter fluid. Shinra had a small bottle of chloroform and a rag he had taken from his father’s office that morning hidden in his backpack, “insurance” he called it in case something went wrongs. Izaya’s backpack was empty.   

 

Even now, knowing full well what he and Shinra were about to do, he couldn't help but focus on the back of her neck and the long red ribbon that adorned it.

 

* * *

 

Izaya had caught her napping against a tree one afternoon in the middle of May. He couldn’t remember why he was out at that time, or even why he had decided to go through the park but in the grand scheme of things it hardly mattered. Her sleeping face had filled him with such emotion that, without him even realizing it, he had gotten close enough to hear her breathing. Her long eyelashes casted small, thin shadows over her closed eyelids, her lips were slightly parted and she looked completely at peace. She looked like a beautiful porcelain doll made to rest on an old bookshelf. His eyes eventually found themselves resting on that ever present red ribbon she always wore around her neck. He found himself wondering what her neck would look like completely exposed and bare, his hand found itself around one of the ends of the ribbon and with a slight tug it came completely undone in his hand.

 

What was hidden under that ribbon presented Izaya with more question than it did satisfy his curiosity. He ran home after that, the image of Celty’s sleeping face burned into his memory along with the knowledge of what was under that long red ribbon. Everytime he thought about it, about what he had seen, he could feel butterflies forming in the pit of his stomach.

 

* * *

 

 

Not long after the incident Shinra would ask Izaya if he had a crush on anyone. Izaya would lie. Izaya would eventually tell Shinra the truth, expecting Shinra to be at best confused and at worse disgusted. But Shinra, being Shinra, reacted completely differently from what Izaya expected. Shinra accepted it, some might even go as far to say he was happy.

 

About a week into their plan Izaya would asked Shinra why he liked Celty to which Shinra would reply with “I want to kiss the back of her hand”. Izaya didn’t ask any questions after that. They spent their summer break planning and effectively waiting for the best time to strike.The appearance of the slasher had been their lucky break.  

 

* * *

 

It had all happened so quickly.She had been laying against a tree on the verge of falling asleep when Shinra presented to rag of chloroform under her nose. They let her lay there for a while as to not arouse suspicion, when the park was mostly empty Izaya moved her to the back of the tree. In that moment her sleeping face was just as alluring as it had been that warm May afternoon.

 

Shinra had insisted on being the one to use the saw, Izaya had insisted on being the one to undo the ribbon.

 

She hadn’t sturred at all during the whole thing, there had been little bloodshed which surprised Shinra but was expected by Izaya. They used their uniforms to clean up the scene before changing into their spare clothes. They placed their bloody uniforms in one of the bags they had brought, later that day they would burn that bag in one of the parks trash cans. Neither of them had an explanation ready if their parents noticed the missing clothes, frankly neither of them thought their parents cared enough to notice something like that. They had plenty of spare uniforms, it was a small price to pay.

 

As Shinra walked home carrying a large, black garbage bag bridal style he confessed he did plan to tell his father everything one day.

 

Izaya felt his heavy backpack dig into his shoulder as he responded “When you do tell him I said thank you.”

 

Izaya kept the ribbon.

 

* * *

 

Every now and then he’d take her out of the incubator and used that same red ribbon to tie a bow in her, the same type of bow she had worn back when they went to school together. More than a decade had passed and the effect of time were obvious. What was once the round face of a young girl had developed into that of a lovely young woman, her eyelashes were longer, her lips fuller and her hair often went past the base of her neck. He often wondered if her eyes were still the same lovely shade of light green. On lonely, quiet nights he found himself missing those green eyes and the small smile she wore as she walked through their shared elementary school hallways.

 

Despite having comes to turn with what he had done he was still filled to the brim with what if’s.

 

What if he hadn't told Shinra about what he saw?

What if they hadn’t done what they did?

What if she had been given the chance to grow up?

What if someone had caught them during the act or on their way home?

What if Shinra was a normal man who didn’t desire a decapitated lover?

What if she woke up during the process and tried to scream? Izaya doubted it would have changed much.

 

But most importantly, what if Izaya hadn’t undone her ribbon that day only to see a long scar connecting her head and body?

 

Izaya wouldn’t say he regretted what had happened, he simply wondered what would have happened had things played out a little differently. Some nights when it was just the two of them and he had a bit of wine in his system he wondered what would happen if he and Shinra tried to but her together again.

 

After all, Izaya still had the ribbon.

 

* * *

 

Her name was Celty Sturluson.

She was Irish.

She had light green eyes, auburn hair, pale skin, and was approximately 140 cm tall and weighed around 90 pounds during the time of her disappearance.  

She was only 11 years old, her last recorded sighting was her walking home from her elementary school in Ikebukuro, Japan.

She'd been missing October 1st, 1991.

The police had no leads and she was classified as an unofficial victim of “The Slasher”.

She was pronounced legally dead in 2001.

Her body was never found.

She was mute.

**Author's Note:**

> HEAVILY inspired by this art https://snowytunes.tumblr.com/post/163905604040


End file.
